Colonial Lourenne
The Protectorate of Lourenne (Canrillaise language: Protectorat de Lourenne), commonly referred to as Rildanorien Lourenne or Colonial Lourenne was a Rildanorien colony in western Dovani, established under the direction of merchant Mathieu Dessaigne and which would eventually develop into the modern state of Lourenne. History The first Artanian people to reach Lourenne were Luthorian colonists, who had established posts in nearby Hulstria in the late 15th century however they described the regions as not being conducive to settlement. Proper attempts to settle in the region by "westerners" did not occur until a group of Rildanorien missionaries, led by Mathieu Dessaigne, landed in Haboves after a shipwreck. The survivors of the crash encountered a village inhabited native people (it is unclear whether they were Taxteco or Orinco people). Lourennais folklore says that Dessaigne convinced the villagers to shelter his crew in exchange for fine fabrics salvaged from the ship, spawning the popular saying that "Lourenne was born from a trade". Dessaigne was the sole survivor of the journey by the time he managed to find help, in the form of a Luthorian caravel. In his diary, he describes encountering various "great cities" built by local peoples, primarily Taxtecos, but he did not communicate his discoveries to the Luthorian settlers, convinced that he had been chosen by God to claim the region for the Theognosian Church. After returning to Rildanor, Dessaigne was granted an audience with Louis X, who was convinced by the merchant's poetic descriptions to finance a full colonial expedition of eastern Dovani. According to local folklore, it is said that the King enquired of Dessaigne, "what do they call these idyllic lands at the world's edge?" at which point Dessaigne realised he had never been given a name by the indigenous people and responded with the name of Saint Lourent, birthing the name "Lourenne". The full Rildanorien colonial expedition didn't arrive in Lourenne until 1498. Several missionaries had already attempted to convert the indigenous people to the Hosian faith but with mixed success. In the subsequent decades, the colonists used the Theognosian Church as a means to pacify the native people and establish their rule over the coastal communities. Under the viceroyalty of Salomon de Montrosier, the colonial rule in Lourenne hardened. De Montrosier began a campaign of conquest in an attempt to expand the extent of the Lourennais colonial territory. This period of rapid expansion brought the Rildanorien colonists into direct conflict with many of the Orinco natives, often referred to collectively as the Orinco Wars. During this period, the native peoples of Lourenne were subjected to widespread famine, brutality and, in some cases, slavery. By the 16th century, economic and social instability led the monarchy to begin a process of selling colonial possessions to private trading companies. Many of these corporations employed similarly brutal tactics to the colonial regime although there was a noticeable shift away from deliberately racist practices. By the 1800s, Lourenne had been transformed into a series of private holdings, owned by a few transnational mega-corporations. The largest companies, like Ducret-Levene Mercantile Company, possessed private armies which they used to defend their territories from native people. Despite the ongoing conflict, many of these companies employed thousands of Orinco people in manual labour jobs. Accompanying this period of company rule, a process of cultural homogenisation began. Canrillaise language, culture and tradition was idealised and thousands of Rildanoriens were brought across from the mainland to work as administrators, others migrated to take advantage of the new markets available. Industrial modernisation in Lourenne brought new challenges to the country, with the first major labour strikes in the mid 19th century. The significant Orinco labour force began to organise into unions, influenced by both trade unionist and egalitarian ideals. As Rildanorien domestic politics began to move towards universal rights and democracy, it became harder to rationalise the exploitative colonial regime in Lourenne. Intensifying labour disputes in the middle of the 19th century led the capitalist rulers of the region to appeal to the Rildanorien government for aid but internal conflict led to rejection. The seizure of a Rildanorien merchant vessel in 1853, following months of sporadic protests by native peoples across the country, led Rildanor's government to dispatch their own armed forces to reassert control over the territory in Lourenne, effectively nationalising the trading companies in the process. The burgeoning pro-democracy movement in Lourenne was harshly put down but this led to the radicalisation of many of those involved, transforming it into an anti-colonial movement. In Rildanor, these efforts found sympathy with a middle class which had developed a new morality guided by principles of freedom and equality. During this second period of direct colonial rule by Rildanor, the authorities were far more repressive in their attempts to "Canrillise" the population by forcing many native peoples outside of Lourenne's borders and encouraging immigration from Rildanor, as well as Kanjor and Alduria. By the 1860s, anti-colonial militants had organised in the southern regions of the country and seized significant portions of territory from the Rildanorien administration by utilising unorthodox, guerrilla tactics. Across the next decade, a conflict commonly referred to as the Slow Revolution developed, in which the Orinco militants were able to make constant gains over the Rildanorien armed forces, leaving only the urbanised, coastal regions of Lourenne under colonial rule. A turning point came as the colonial regions lost access Lourenne's resource-rich south, leaving many of the colony's most important companies on the brink of bankruptcy and an increasingly dissatisfied populace. The impending collapse of the colonial regime led a small group of Rildanorien wealthy aristocrats to orchestrate a bloodless coup. After bribing the colonial army, the group established the Council for Self-Governance and took control of most of the Lourennais territory. The Council sought to reach an immediate peaceful resolution with the Orinco resistance movements but many of the leaders were resistant to accepting Rildanorien rule even with democratic reforms. By 1873 a compromise had been reached which would see the largest resistance movements lay down their weapons and the new Lourennais government declaring official independence from Rildanor. Category:Former countries Category:Former Rildanorien colonies Category:Former colonies in Dovani